a) Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a jack socket for a jack plug with a sleeve-shaped or tubular guide part for receiving the shaft of the jack plug and with contact strips which are arranged in a holder made from electrically insulating material, wherein the contact strips have solder lugs which project beyond the holder and can be connected in an electrically conducting manner with conductors of a printed circuit board.
b) Description of the Related Art
Jack sockets are socket connectors for receiving known 1/4" jack plugs which are constructed with 2 or 3 contacts. The socket connectors have a tip (contact bulb), as they are called, and a shaft contact in the 2-contact construction or a tip contact, ring contact and shaft contact in the 3-contact construction. The 2-contact construction is used for connecting 1-conductor shielded cable (unbalanced) and the 3-contact construction is used for connecting 2-conductor shielded cable (balanced). The respective jack sockets, of which many embodiment forms are known, accordingly have a hollow-cylindrical guide part for receiving and guiding the plug shaft, wherein this guide part also serves to mechanically connect the plug housing, via the socket housing, to the device housing at which the guide part is fastened and which is usually made of metal and also produces the electrical ground connection between the shaft and the housing. A cylindrical flange of this guide part is connected with a housing that is usually made of plastic or is inserted in such a housing which carries contact strips. In the simplest case, an individual contact strip is provided, namely, the tip contact or bulb contact. In the most elaborate case, five contact strips are provided, namely, a tip contact, a ring contact and two shaft contacts which are electrically connected with the tip and ring in the rest position and which open when the socket connector is inserted. The above-mentioned contact strips usually terminate, at the end opposite to the insertion side, in lugs or pins which are constructed and provided for connection with a printed circuit. The cylindrical guide part mentioned above is provided with an external thread which carries a nut, the socket connector being connected with the housing by this external thread (DE 195 38 725 C1; U.S. Pat. No. 5,522, 738). A mechanical connection is produced in this way between the printed circuit and the housing, which imposes strict requirements on the dimensional stability of both parts.
Assembly is generally carried out in such a way that the socket connectors--for example, there can be fifty or more such socket connectors on a modern mixing console--are initially placed on the printed circuit and then soldered with the conductor paths in the solder bath. The board in its entirety, which is outfitted with these and other components, is then inserted into the housing and screwed in and tightened connector by connector by means of the above-mentioned nut by a time-consuming process.
A disadvantage of these known constructions is their relatively high price due to the fact that they comprise, in principle, three parts to be joined together, namely the guide part with thread, the housing and the contact strips. The above-described assembly is also very complicated and therefore costly because all of the jack sockets fastened to the printed circuit board must be brought into a position coinciding with the bore holes for receiving them in the housing or in a front plate and inserted into these bore holes, and only then can the nuts be screwed on and the jack socket fastened.